Rand Paul, Libertarians Decry Militarized Police

Writing for Time, Rand Paul writes, “there should be a difference between a police response and a military response.” He continues, “There is a systemic problem with today’s law enforcement. Not surprisingly, big government has been at the heart of the problem. Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies. . . .” Paul cites the related work of Glenn Reynolds and Walter Olsen.

Meanwhile, David Kopel points out for the Washington Post that he and other libertarian-minded scholars have been raising the alarm about militarized police for years. He cites several of his own articles on the matter.